| A Sailor's Notes | |
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| Writer(s) | Thunderblast |
| Date published | May 23rd, 2016 |
| Words | 65,782 |
| Status | Complete |
| Type/genre | Adventure, AU |
| Featuring | Anchorage |
| Part of | Millennia Saga (spinoff) |
| Based on | Millennia: Beginning |
| Story link(s) | |
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A Sailor's Notes is an adventure-alternate universe origin story written by Thunderblast and a spinoff-prequel to the Millennia Saga. It is based around a younger Anchorage prior to and leading into his entry into the Navy.
Plot[]
In the small seaside town of Gander Cove, Anchorage, a teenage pegasus, leaves school one afternoon, then heads to his favorite spot to relax: the town's marina, where he observes passing boats and listens to the ocean. He is interrupted by his mother, who scolds him for being back at the harbor, and Anchorage heads home.
Returning to his house, Anchorage goes up to his room to work on one of his latest sketches, when his mother arrives with groceries. He helps her out, and the two talk about school, when Anchorage brings up his mother disliking him visiting the marina. The two talk it out, calming any tension the two had with each other on the matter.
That evening, Sea Current, Anchorage's father and a sailor in the Equestrian Navy, returns home from work, finding Anchorage in their basement, once more on his personal "bridge", a desk with a maritime radio receiver and real-time ship radar. He accidentally startles Anchorage, whom apologizes for using the tech. The two head back upstairs to have dinner.
At the table, Sea talks about his day at work, as well as a new destroyer is being sent to Gander Cove, and an event to determine who will be the ship's captain. Anchorage becomes excited, fully comprehending his dream later in life.
Following an undisclosed period of time, Anchorage is spending time with his friends at a diner in town when they mention his father. That night, after returning home late from work, Sea Current offers to take his son to work the next day. Having barely slept, Anchorage forces himself awake as his father readies for work, and the two set out to the small naval base, where they are stopped when a guard initially refuses to allow Anchorage through. The father and son duo eventually are allowed past, where Sea Current briefly gives a tour of the facilities on base before continuing to his office.
The day passes, and despite being told that his help would be needed, Anchorage is left to sit around as his father works on his computer. Anchorage grows worried that there might be trouble later on for him being there, but Sea Current assures him that no one will say anything.
At lunch, Sea Current sits down with Anchorage to tell him something, but is abruptly cut off when a sailor passes and lets them off with a warning about his son's presence on base. Anchorage, feeling uncomfortable now, wishes to go home to avoid his father landing in further turmoil. The two briefly argue before sitting down to have a long-needed discussion where Sea Current admits he feels guilty for not being around his son as much due to his occupation, as well as being afraid for Anchorage to grow up and move out on his own. They are suddenly brought to an emergency meeting, where Anchorage finally learns that his father is deploying due to a rise in conflict across the ocean.
The news is later broken to Hazy Brook at dinner, where she panics over the idea of Sea Current deploying, only to be reassured by Sea that he will spend more time than he ever has with them in the coming days leading up to his ship out date.
One week later, Sea Current says his goodbyes to his family on base as his ship boards to leave port along with the others. In wake of his father's deployment, Anchorage notices peculiar behavioral changes from his mother, but understands why. At school, Anchorage talks to one of his friends, Misty, who checks on him after his absence from school. After she leaves, he is cornered by the school bully, Cobalt, which Anchorage simply dodges and starts heading off to class. However, Cobalt makes a remark about his father that sets him over the deep end, triggering him to attack the larger colt and beat him relentlessly.
Because of his acts of aggression, Anchorage is cuffed outside of the principal's office with a master-at-arms watching over him. Sorrowfully, Anchorage mumbles that it was not unprovoked, and the sailor hears his side of the story and promptly stands behind him. He uncuffs Anchorage, just as his mother walks out of the office and brings him home. She scolds him without giving him a chance to defend himself, and Anchorage simply goes to his room to sleep it off.
The next morning, he has a panic attack that almost leads to self harm, and goes downstairs to try and talk to his mother. She sits him down and apologizes for her attitude the night before, and the two agree that Sea Current's mission was affecting them equally.
After six months, deployment was over. Anchorage and Hazy Brook gather at the naval base along with other families of sailors, awaiting their arrival, when Anchorage announces to his mother that he wishes to be a sailor just like his father. As the ship docks, they are reunited with Sea Current; however, reality strikes to reveal Anchorage to be daydreaming of the moment, and horror meets their faces to see a heavily damaged cruiser unlike the destroyer his father deployed on. The base erupts into chaos as medical attention is needed for many on board.
Finally, they spot Sea Current, seemingly in a mental fog. The three tightly embrace and head home where, after some time, Anchorage realizes he is different.
On November 17th, Anchorage's sixteenth birthday, he wakes to find his father the more positive stallion he was before deployment, for the first time since his return. After breakfast, someone knocks on the door. His parents tell Anchorage to answer, and upon doing so, he discovers an older naval officer from the Junior Officer Naval Reserves standing there, looking to inform Anchorage of his enrollment in the program as a birthday present from his parents, and the colt faints on the spot.
Waking up not long after, Anchorage discovers the surprise to be reality, much to his excitement. He is issued a uniform and accompanies Lieutenant Commander Reveille to Camp Wallop in Alderneigh, where he settles in to Junior Sailor life. Following a rough start into the new routine, Anchorage befriends a trio of colts one day at lunch.
One month later, Anchorage spends his Hearth's Warming at Camp Wallop, taking part in an outdoor survival class and learning Prench as a second language. After class, he is approached by one of his friends, Cordial, who offers a game of ping pong. He hesitantly accepts, acknowledging the amount of work to do that evening. At the recreational hall, Cordial teaches Anchorage how to play to where he catches on after a few tries. However, in their game, they are interrupted by a somber Reveille, who brings the concerned pegasus to his office, informing him of a tragedy back home--his father, Sea Current, had committed suicide.
Anchorage is returned home in time for the funeral services, where he spends most of his free time between events locked away in his room, having fallen into a depressed state that nearly leads to the destruction of his friendship with Misty. She helps him out of this state through conversation and offers her and their friends' help to get him through this dark time together. It isn't long later before Anchorage also discovers that his father had committed suicide days before the news even reached him, and that it might have been kept from him on purpose. When Reveille returns to their home to pick Anchorage back up to return to Alderneigh, Anchorage politely declines the offer, and prematurely forfeits his education and recreation at the Junior Officer Naval Reserves.
A year later, Anchorage takes up a job at a local bait and tackle store in town to help out in the aftermath of his father's passing. Misty stops by, searching for birthday gifts for her father, with Anchorage helping her find what she is looking for. After work, the two leave the shop, noticing the addition of a naval recruiting center across the street, which attracts the pegasus colt's interest and reignites his flame for wanting to be a sailor. Hesitant to let him go, Misty urges him to follow his gut, and he goes inside to speak to a recruiter.
After some time talking to a sailor recruiter, Anchorage learns his best option for enlisting in the Navy is signing up for the DEP (Delayed Entry Program), a program designed specifically for younger colts and fillies to join the service once their schooling has finished up; Anchorage being in his final year of high school. However, doing so requires his mother's consent, which he does not have, and does not believe she would follow through.
At dinner, he casually brings it up to Hazy Brook, who firmly shoots him down. An argument breaks out, and quickly becomes heated, with Anchorage insulting his mother with profanity before retreating to his room. Now intent on living out the rest of his colt days without her, the two stand with a massive divide between one another, with his mother having quickly realized how much harm she has done over years of protective parenting.
One day, when school is closed for maintenance, and refusing to go home and spend the day around his mother, he heads to the recruiter's office to kill time. There, however, he stumbles across his mother, sitting down with his recruiter. Upset by her presence, the two step outside where his mother apologizes for her behavior, finally acknowledging Anchorage's hopes and dreams, and that soon he will be of age to make his own decisions, and tearfully agrees to let him join the DEP and ship off to boot camp after his eighteenth birthday.
That November, Anchorage arrives in Chicoltgo for Navy boot camp with other recruits, and are brought to the basic training base north of the city, called North Shores.
Characters[]
- Anchorage: The main character, a greyish-white pegasus with a deep interest in the ocean and marine vessels, and aspires to follow his father's hoofsteps into the Navy.
- Hazy Brook: Anchorage's mother, worried for her son when it comes to looking up to his father.
- Sea Current: Anchorage's father, a pegasus sailor in the Equestrian Navy, ranking at Lieutenant Commander.
Secondary Characters[]
- Misty: The first of Anchorage's three friends and growing love interest. She is tough and intelligent, according to him.
- Vixen: A smart, yet athletic colt, the second of Anchorage's three friends.
- Azeruth: The third of Anchorage's three friends. A slightly larger colt, and also popular at their school.
- Reveille: The Lieutenant Commander of the Junior Officer Naval Reserves, an educational program for youth based out of Alderneigh.
Minor Characters[]
- Cobalt: The school bully. He constantly nags at Anchorage in an attempt to break him, failing each time thanks to Anchorage's collected attitude.
- Gallant: Gallant is an earth pony sailor, whom helped Anchorage with a swimming technique in Navy boot camp. Having enlisted under the same rate as Anchorage, the two attend the necessary schooling together and grow to become good friends in their division.
- Ashfall: Ashfall is a Private in the Marine Corps, befriending Anchorage after their two branches began sharing the base in Manehattan.
Reception[]
The story has received positive reception with 11 likes and 0 dislikes. It also has 351 views and over 4,500 total views. It is praised for further worldbuilding preceding the Millennia Saga, its use of drama, and Anchorage's character development, but somewhat criticized for pacing.
Potential sequels/spinoffs[]
Thunderblast mentioned in October 2017 that he shows interest in writing a full-length naval drama in the future that sets the spotlight on Anchorage once more, and that if he decides to write it, it will be "a while" after the completion of the Millennia Saga, and especially A Sailor's Notes.
As of September 2018, all that is known about the full-length drama is that, if written, will be set "one to two years" after the events of a planned "crossover story" titled The Unsung, which would put it some time in the 2020s in the Pegiverse timeline.
In 2018, as well, it was announced that a one-shot with Anchorage as a main character set between the events of Millennia: Eye of the Storm and Millennia: Starfall, where he embarks on a search to learn the story of his late father's final voyage before his untimely death shortly after returning home. Possible plans for a short holiday story titled A Sailor's Gift are also being considered.
In 2019, Thunderblast announced A Sailor's Gift will be the next story to come chronologically, and will be set between Notes and Millennia: Beginning. The one-shot story, still currently untitled, will come after that.
Production[]
A Sailor's Notes was published on May 23rd, 2016, but had a fairly rough start in the writing of chapters throughout 2016 and especially 2017, which only saw three new chapters in all, and eventually the story was put on indefinite hiatus. Following the completion of Millennia: Eye of the Storm, Thunderblast put ASN as his primary focus until his next story. After a sixteen month hiatus, the story resumed with the release of chapter 10, and was finally completed on March 4th, 2019.
Trivia[]
- A Sailor's Notes is a direct spinoff/side story to Millennia: Beginning.
- Rather than centering around Star Shooter, it centers around a younger Anchorage, a pony who first appears in Beginning as a sailor in the Lunar Navy, set after the events of A Sailor's Notes.
- Like Millennia, ASN takes place in first-person POV.
- While it is meant to somewhat be a part of the Millennia Saga, Ashfall is the only major character to make an appearance in this story due to ASN taking place before the series.
- Thunderblast was inspired to write A Sailor's Notes while on vacation in Myrtle Beach, SC, primarily due to the fact he was lodging right on the ocean.
- Gander Cove, the primary setting of most of the story, is located on a small boreal island twelve miles east of the Equestrian coast, just south of what would later become the border of the Crystal Empire. It is connected to the mainland via ferry service through Alderneigh, which is a four hour trip between ports.
- The town, its culture and architecture, and the surrounding environment was heavily inspired by U.S. Eastern seaboard fishing towns.
- On August 16th, 2017, Thunderblast lowered the story's rating from 'Mature' to 'Teen' in hopes of drawing in more readers.
- In September 2018, Thunderblast extended the story by two chapters, which will put it at 17 total chapters on completion.
- The story's vocal theme song is "Happy Liar", a mashup of "Happier" by Bastille/Marshmello and "Bad Liar" by Imagine Dragons, with the soundtrack theme being Sky Riser by Really Slow Motion & Giant Apes.